Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Photo by: UNESCO
A young Kreung man interviews a villager for a community radio station supported by UNESCO and Japanese agencies.

via CAAI

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 17:29 Isabel González Rojo

Ethnic minority people living in four remote Cambodian villages are to benefit from solar battery-powered radio receivers.

More than 100 radio receivers, purchased by the Basic Human Needs Association, a UNESCO Japanese partner, with funding from two Japanese telecommunications agencies, were recently donated to the Kreung, Brao, Tampoun and Jarai indigenous community villages in Cambodia.

Tompoun, a woman from Ou Chum district, said: “I thank you very much for this present. In this village, we like listening to the radio and this receiver is very good because we do not need to buy batteries.

“Sometimes, we don't have 3,000 riel (US$0.75) to buy two batteries, so we cannot listen to the radio.”

Concentrated in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Preah Vihear provinces, the indigenous farming communities make up around two percent of Cambodia’s total population of 13.5 million.

In 2007, in the remote northern province of Ratanakiri, the Cambodian Ministry of Information, in association with UNESCO Phnom Penh, developed a radio system.

The station was initially launched as government radio, but gradually progressed into a community radio station. Community radio means “radio in the community, for the community, about the community and from the community”.

The community radio concept was further developed to help reduce HIV/AIDS vulnerability among ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri province, through the use of a radio drama in the Kreung language to spread awareness about the disease.

The young Kreung boys and girls who broadcast their own radio drama were reaching for the first time in their own indigenous community, in their own language.

Photo by: UNESCO
Community radio staff show villagers how to use solar-powered radio receivers.

The Cambodian government then began to acknowledge the importance of addressing a lack of information among indigenous communities and of promoting the use of Cambodian indigenous languages, some of them at risk of disappearing forever.

Only Kreung – one of 16 indigenous languages in the country – has a written script. Therefore talking, through radio in this case, is the greatest way to promote and preserve this language.

Last year, the UNESCO Office in Phnom Penh organised and provided training sessions on how to run community radio to three additional ethnic groups: the Tompoun, Jarai, and Brao.

With young indigenous people equipped to develop radio programmes, aided by UNESCO’s donation of essential equipment, community radio continues broadcasting for one hour every day in the Kreung, Tompon, Jarai and Brao indigenous languages.

A male resident of a Kreung village said: “Before we could only listen to radio programmes in the Khmer language. Yes, I can understand the Khmer language, but I feel happier if I can listen to my own language.

“Now I receive news about our communities and our culture, apart from the national news. If good or bad things happen in our villages and in other parts of the country, I like to know.”

The radio receivers, which cost nothing to run, are helping indigenous communities improve their daily lives, through providing useful information related to health, culture, weather, education, environment, agriculture and forestry.

Indigenous communities are also being provided with means of communication and information. Through the radio, the community can promote its identity, its character and local culture, and create a diversity of voices.

Soun, a Brao indigenous girl, who is very active with community radio, said: “I and my friends at the community radio go to the villages at least twice a week. There, we interview the villagers. Depending on the radio programme, we ask them their ideas related to health, education, environment and climate change.

“Also, we ask them to let us know about the traditional ways to deal with troubles as well as about traditional folk tales, way of making traditional tools, handicrafts and cooking. When we finish, we come back to the radio station and we develop the news to be broadcast.

“By doing this, we make the stories available to everyone. We like it, and people in the villages enjoy it too. That is what they told me every time I go back to my own village. My community likes listening to me. They say they learn many things,” she added.

KANDAL provincial police said yesterday that they did not expect to immediately arrest the perpetrators of a triple murder that took place in Takhmao town over the weekend. The killings brought to four the total number of multiple homicides in as many months, but only one of those cases has resulted in an arrest.

Provincial police described the murder of three women, who were found shot dead on Saturday morning, as a “priority” case, but declined to provide details of ongoing investigations.

Iv Chamroeun, provincial police chief, said police were “burning our hands and legs ... in order to apprehend the murderers”, but were not expecting the case to be solved soon.

“We cannot say when they will be arrested, as it is a murder crime that could possibly take a long time [to investigate],” he said.

Investigations of three other multiple murder cases in recent months have achieved mixed results.

No arrests were made after a 50-year-old Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldier allegedly opened fire on residents of Kroch Chhmar district in Kampong Cham province, killing four in July, an official said yesterday.

Lay Nguon, district police chief, said that investigations were “ongoing to apprehend the perpetrator, Sles Yeb, who has remained at large”.

Meanwhile, Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for rights group Licadho, said a police officer accused of killing two people and injuring three with an AK-47 in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district in July had been arrested and charged with premediated murder.

He said Vong Saneath was being held in pretrial detention, and that a trial date had not been set.

“Normally it would take at least 18 months to investigate a felony, and the trial date is set after the completion of the investigation,” he said.

In August, a 35-year-old man who allegedly murdered five family members and injured three others in Svay Rieng province also took his own life.

Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said multiple-murder cases were not necessarily harder to solve than single-murder cases. “It depends on the tracks left behind by the perpetrator,” he said. “When they kill, if they leave a track, it is very easy for us.”

He said that police were investigating Saturday’s triple-murder, but that the case was proving difficult because the killers had not left many clues.

DEFENCE ministers and military field commanders from Cambodia and Thailand met yesterday to discuss the redeployment of troops from both sides along the shared border, officials said.

Chea Dara, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces based in Preah Vihear province, said he attended a meeting yesterday morning with Thai General Thawatchai Samutsakorn.

“The purpose of the meeting was to minimise the military confrontation along the border,” Chea Dara said. “We followed the agreement between the two prime ministers during their meetings in New York and Brussels.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva have met twice recently, once in New York on September 24 and again in Belgium last week.

Also yesterday, Minister of Defence Tea Banh met unofficially with his Thai counterpart, Prawit Wongsuwan, while the pair were in Hanoi to attend a retreat for ASEAN Defence Ministers.

CAMBODIA is one of 25 countries worldwide facing an “alarming” level of hunger, with dangerous levels of malnutrition and child mortality, according to a report released in the United States yesterday.

Using data gathered from 2003 to 2008, the report – termed the “Global Hunger Index” and produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe – said Cambodia and other countries that received poor index scores needed to focus on improving child undernutrition.

The Kingdom ranked 58th out of 84 developing countries measured in the index, and among Asian countries, placed ahead only of India, Bangladesh and Timor-Leste. In creating the index, researchers took into account data on the proportion of undernourished people in a country, the prevalence of underweight children and the child mortality rate.

Heng Taykry, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Health, said challenges outlined in the report were common in developing countries like Cambodia.

“Everywhere, there is hunger,” he said. “[Cambodian] families must work hard to improve their standard of living; this is not a challenge just for the health ministry, but for the whole country.”

Almost 40 percent of Cambodian children are chronically malnourished, according to the United Nations World Food Programme, and one-third of Cambodians are considered “food insecure”, while 26 percent of the overall population is undernourished.

The United Nations Millenium Development Goal for child mortality calls for Cambodia’s baseline rate of 124 deaths per 1,000 live births to drop to 41 by the year 2015. To meet the locally adopted target for the goal, the mortality rate would need to fall to 66 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Photo by: Will Baxter
A lakeside resident treads water while trying to lift a wooden walkway submerged by floodwaters in Srah Chak commune’s Village 24.

via CAAI

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:02 Khouth Sophakchakrya

A REPRESENTATIVE of a secretive private firm yesterday defended development work being carried out at Boeung Kak lake, marking the first time a company representative has spoken to the press about the controversial project.

Lao Vann said in a brief interview that the project – which rights groups say will ultimately displace more than 4,000 families – was part of broader efforts to develop the country, and directed specific questions about it to municipal and other officials.

“I cannot delay the development process at Boeung Kak lake,” he said. “Our company is just a firm which received the rights from the government and from municipal authorities to invest in the Boeung Kak lake area, so if you have any questions please ask the government.”

He declined to give details about plans for the site, which has been shrouded in secrecy since Shukaku Inc – owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin – signed a lease agreement with the municipality for it in 2007. The following year, Shukaku began filling in the lake with sand to make way for a 133-hectare housing and commercial development.

He added: “If you were the prime minister or head of the government, would you decide to develop the Boeung Kak lake area? If you did, what would you do to avoid negative effects on the people? Without any negative effects, I think you cannot do the development.”

Residents and rights groups suggested yesterday that Lao Vann’s reluctance to divulge much about the project was consistent with the lack of transparency exhibited by the company.

“The fact that this is the first time anyone from Shukaku Inc is speaking publicly says volumes about the transparency of the project,” said Ee Sarom, an advocacy programme manager for the local NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut.

“There are many questions about the way in which the land around Boeung Kak lake was turned from state public to state private land and whether all the necessary steps for transferral were correctly completed,” he said.

He pointed out that “there is an ongoing World Bank Inspection Panel investigation into whether the World Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project, which unfairly denied land titles to the Boeung Kak families shortly before the area was leased”.

David Pred, executive director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, said Shukaku’s actions “constituted flagrant violations of Cambodian and international law”.

“Shukaku has been waging a low-level war against the people of Boeung Kak for the last 18 months – flooding families out of their homes – in order to strip them of their land rights and acquire, for the least amount possible, their prime real estate. To claim that this is somehow legitimate defies the imagination,” he said.

Janice Beanland, of Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia Team, also deplored the dearth of available information, which she said had “been lacking since the beginning of the process to develop the lake”.

Eung Navy, a representative from Village 24 in Srah Chak commune, said that requests for dialogue with the company were typically ignored. “But to date, we are seriously affected by the development plan,” she said.

Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema could not be reached for comment yesterday.

DELEGATES from Colombia’s national de-mining programme began a two-week training course with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre in Phnom Penh yesterday.

The group of 15 delegates – part of Colombia’s Presidential Programme for Comprehensive Action Against Land Mines – arrived on Saturday, and are expected to learn new demining methods while being exposed to new demining technologies.

New Sowathey, public relations manager for CMAC, said yesterday the visit by the group was important to develop “international training”. “It is a chance for us to learn from one another to help solve the issue of mines,” she said.

The delegates will spend seven days in the capital, and three days each in Siem Reap, Battambang and Kampong Chhnang provinces. The course includes visits to live minefield operations in each province.

CAMBODIANS all over the country return to their jobs this week with the conclusion of the Pchum Ben festival, having participated in religious ceremonies and made offerings to their deceased ancestors. At the Khmer Rouge tribunal, things were no different.

Court spokesman Dim Sovannarom said yesterday that over the holiday, the four suspects in the court’s second case – former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, social action minister Ieng Thirith, head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother No 2 Nuon Chea – had met with three monks who presided over an offering ceremony at the detention centre on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The four are housed there along with former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who in July became the first defendant convicted at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the tribunal is formerly known. “The ECCC considers like the international standards, so the detention centre has to respect the rights of the accused,” Dim Sovannarom said. As a Christian, Duch did not participate in the ceremony, held on October 2, Dim Sovannarom added.

“The detention centre respects charged persons who practice Buddhism or Christian religion,” he said, and noted that ceremonies related to other holidays had been staged in the past.

He said Veng Chhat was arrested on September 29 and charged on October 1.

In addition, he said, the court last week charged a 25-year-old rubber plantation worker with raping an 18-year-old female student. The suspect in that case, Svay Rath, was arrested on October 6 and charged on Saturday, he said.

“We decided to charge these two people because we had enough real proof that they committed their raping activities on a child and a young girl,” he said.

Thim Narin, Kratie provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said she could not provide updated statistics on rapes in the province, but that rape was a “main concern” and that provincial officials typically recorded 40 or so each year.

“The reason why there are such things happening in this country [is] because of the fall of morality and literature, and also because of poverty and the lack of information about human trafficking and rapes,” Thim Narin said.

Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for the rights group Licadho, said that 200 cases of rape had been reported in the first nine months of the year, and that 176 had involved victims younger than the age of 18. Last year, Licadho recorded a total of 209 child rapes, he added.

INTERNATIONAL accounting giant KPMG says it will adapt to meet plans to restrict the final sign off of audited financial statements to Cambodians by 2014.

While some in the accounting industry have raised questions over whether the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s timeline for change is realistic, KPMG chairman for Vietnam and Cambodia John Ditty said the firm’s priority was the quality of work, rather than the nationality of the accountant signing their approval.

“I’m less concerned about who puts their signature on the bottom – that’s a compliance issue, which we will deal with,” he said, during a recent visit to Phnom Penh.

The practice of restricting the final signature on audited reports to domestic nationals was common in neighbouring countries, he said.

“I’m comfortable with what [the Cambodian government] is planning to do. I understand the desire to have Cambodian nationals sign Cambodian audit reports,” he said.

The limits on who will sign the reports may present more of a challenge to smaller firms, according to KPMG Cambodia senior partner Craig

McDonald.

Some smaller domestic accounting firms centre on a single foreign employee, who could face challenges with the new rules, he said.

Industry oversight association ACCA’s country head Dalis Chhorn has told the Post that Cambodia presently has 37 fully qualified accountants at an international standard, but McDonald said that there were a number of opportunities opening up for young Cambodians.

“The fact there’s only 37 should encourage Cambodians to be part of the next 37, the next fifty, the next hundred,” he said.

KPMG is also looking towards the future. The firm has grown at an average of 25 percent in the Kingdom each year over the last three years, a trend it expects will continue in the medium term.

John Ditty said KPMG’s goal was to grow faster than the domestic economy, and added Cambodia’s stock exchange – which is slated to launch in mid-2011 – will further business for accountants.

He expects Cambodia’s bourse would start relatively small – similar to Vietnam’s exchange when it first launched – but would grow over time.

Publicly traded companies would face more onerous accounting and reporting standards than private firms, he said, but would have greater access to finance and hiring talent as transparency improves.

“As long as the benefits – the increased access to capital markets – outweigh the cost of doing it, companies will list,” he said.

KPMG operates three primary business lines in Cambodia, including auditing, tax, and advisory services.

Audit and tax services have traditionally been KPMG’s main business in the Kingdom, but Ditty said he expects the firm to fill increased advisory roles in coming years.

KPMG’s largest clients in the Kingdom include ACLEDA, ANZ Royal Bank, and Mobitel.

GOLD prices in Cambodia have followed a record-breaking surge on world markets, with gold climbing 4 percent over the past week.

According to Cambodia’s largest gold dealer, Ly Hour Exchange, based in Phnom Penh, gold was a record high of US$1,630 per damlung yesterday, up $60 from $1,570 a week earlier.

A damlung is the commonly used Cambodian measure for the precious metal, equal to 37.49 grams or about 1.2 troy ounces.

In London yesterday, gold for immediate delivery was at $1,349.21 a troy ounce at 10am, slightly below its October 7 record of $1,364.77 an ounce.

In Hong Kong yesterday, gold closed at US$1,348 to $1,349 an ounce, up from Friday's close of $1,334 to $1,335. While gold futures for December delivery jumped 0.3 percent to $1,349.10 an ounce on the Comex in New York.

“The price in our country is dependent on the rise in gold prices on international markets,” she said, and added that it was very difficult to predict how local gold prices were likely to proceed in the coming weeks.

Despite the rises, sellers report that demand for the metal has stayed strong.

Long Touch, owner of the Long Touch Diamond and Gold Jewelry, a Phnom Penh-based gold dealer located close to O’Russey Market, said gold was very easy to sell.

“Khmer people living in the countryside like to save gold rather than money. So, when the gold price goes up they will benefit from it. But people living in city like to save diamonds rather than gold,” she said.

Most of the gold in Cambodia is imported from Hong Kong and Singapore. Global demand for gold, which is seen as a haven from weakening currencies, has helped boost the price to its record-breaking streak in recent weeks.

Speculation that governments would seek to boost their economies by further lowering currency values has also boosted demand for other commodities, subjecting the precious metal silver also to high demand.

Silver gained as much as 1.6 percent to $23.6325 an ounce in London yesterday, the highest price since March 1980.

Finance ministers and central bankers meeting over the past few days did little to show how they would alter differences over currencies. The dollar traded near an eight-month low against the euro on speculation that Federal Reserve policy makers would signal willingness to buy government debt to boost growth.

“Most countries want a weaker currency and their attempts to get there are good for all kinds of real assets including gold,” said Matthew Turner, an analyst at Mitsubishi Corp in London. “Just talk of currency wars is going to prompt people to diversify away from paper assets.”

THE Mekong Sessions, the organisation behind Leonard Cohen’s forthcoming Phnom Penh concert, is partnering with the Mekong Tourism office to promote the Greater Mekong region, said a statement yesterday.

CTN journalist fails to testify on public holiday

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:01 Chhay Channyda
A CAMBODIA Television Network correspondent summoned to appear in Banteay Meanchey provincial court yesterday did not show as the hearing fell on a public holiday. CTN’s Lay Ly was summoned in connection with a disinformation complaint filed by local property firm ARP-OITC based on a report on a land dispute between the company and a military officer. CTN news editor Huy Vannak said lawyers for the station requested that the hearing be rescheduled. Banteay Meanchey prosecutor So Vath said yesterday that the court was closed for the holiday, but he said he was unsure about rescheduling procedure because he was not in charge of the case. Huy Vannak said he did not know the details of the complaint. “We don’t know what specifically they sued us about, so I am not sure what they want,” Huy Vannak said.

Training set to begin for UN peacekeepers

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:01 Vong Sokheng

AT least 30 members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces are expected to begin a three-week training course in Kampong Speu province’s Oudong district today that will lead to their qualification as United Nations peacekeepers, according to a press release issued by the French embassy yesterday. “The training will help to support the Cambodian military green caps to receive additional information and learn the procedures for the operation of UN peacekeepers,” the statement says.

Vung Noy (right) scored a second-round knockdown against Chao Vireak with a knee to the head and stopped him with a barrage of knees to the body in the fourth round of their Pchum Ben festival bout at Phnom Touch, Banteay Meanchey province. Photo by: Robert Starkweather

via CAAI

Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:00 Robert Starkweather

Banteay Meanchey

They came by the hundreds from neighboring villages last week and gathered in the muddy schoolyard to watch the boys fight.

The best known among them had made their names in Phnom Penh, where television stations broadcast Kun Khmer matches nationwide. But most of the fighters were born here in Phnom Touch, Banteay Meanchey province, or in districts nearby.

Like nearly everyone in the country, the fighters were part of the annual pilgrimage that takes place every Pchum Ben – Cambodia’s largest religious holiday – when Khmers return to their family villages and honor their dead ancestors.

The sombre two-week tradition culminates with a three-day national holiday, and in many places, especially in the provinces neighbouring Thailand, that means visiting the pagoda in the morning, and watching the fights in the afternoon.

The tradition dates back as far as anyone can remember. Chheng Touch was born in Phnom Touch in 1961. As a child, he stood in the Sovankiri schoolyard and rooted for his hometown favorites. Twenty years later, as a fighter, he climbed into the same ring, often against Thais.

”When the Thais come, the place is packed all the way to the fence,” he said, pointing to the enclosing chain link barrier about 20 meters away.

Still muscular and quick at age 49, Cheng Touch moved to Pailin shortly after retiring from the ring in 1986. He opened Club Pailin at his home in Sala Krau district, where he mentored a young boy named Vung Noy, now among the country’s most well-known lightweight fighters.

From Pailin, Vung Noy eventually moved to Phnom Penh, where he trains under Chhit Sarim at the Old Stadium. At the invitation of his Pailin teacher, who has since returned home, Vung Noy travelled to Phnom Touch to fight in the Pchum Ben festival.

“I fight here every year,” said Vung Noy, who stood to make US$50 per bout. “If I don’t get hurt, I can fight twice.”

Vung Noy slept at Chheng Touch’s home and in the days leading up to the Pchum Ben bouts, the two were up at daybreak, training on the front porch in the cool morning air.

Unlike Thai opponents, Vung Noy and Chao Vireak know each other. Chheng Touch described their bout as “friendly,” and ahead of the match the two fighters agreed to, if nothing else, refrain from elbows.

“I forgot,” said Vung Noy about two vicious left elbows early in the second round. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.”

Vung Noy made no apologies for a knee to the head seconds later. And as Chao Vireak put his forehead on the canvas, Vung Noy smiled and raised a glove in victory.

Chao Vireak managed to make it out of the round, but he succumbed to a barrage of knees in the fourth, giving Vung Noy the technical knockout.

After a day off, Vung Noy outpointed Eam Khlimkhmao in the final card of the three-day event.

“It was a difficult fight,” he said. “My legs were hurt.”

Yok Yakill shows mercy for pal

In other bouts, Yok Yakill and Sor Say, both from Banteay Meanchey province, battled to a draw in the light-middleweight division.

“He is my friend. I did not want to kill him,” Yok Yakill said. “If I want, I can kill in two or three rounds.”

The Kingdom’s corporate sector is abuzz with excitement as the second and expanded edition of the Phnom Penh Post Mini Soccer Championship kicks off this evening at Kidzcool Children & Family Fun Village on the Chhroy Changvar peninsula.

One notable drop out from the inaugural 10-team event is Total, but four new teams Banzai, Beeline, Cellcard and ANZ Royal are pitching in alongside the rebranded sides of JBCF and Me Mates Place to boost the numbers to 13. Reigning champions Devenco and runners-up Smart are the two most feared teams for the upcoming season.

“We were happy with the first edition, but this will be far bigger and better,” said Kidzcool owner and tournament organiser Eric Delacollette. “We are glad that local internet proivders Ezecom are stepping in as main sponsors and are providing us with extensive material support.”

The former Belgian youth international not that “fair play and camaraderie” were the main objectives of the league. “But I can assure you there will never be a dull moment in this event, right up to its finish in the last week of February [2011],” added Delacollette, who is now a partner of Banzai, a company tasked with the construction of an indoor sports stadium in Phnom Penh.

Another Banzai executive, Stephane Devos, promised they would field a competitive squad to help highlight the company’s interests in promoting sport in Cambodia. “We will put up a strong team, as it is our way of showing what we stand for.”

For new entrants Beeline, a local telecommunications company, the championship plays an important role in uniting their staff outside the workplace. “We watched last time from the sidelines and decided to join the fray now,” said Beeline CEO Gael Campan. “It could well be a part of corporate sensibility to involve employees in sports pursuits, and we look forward to this event with great enthusiasm.”

Veteran footballer Billy Barnaart, who has been a permanent fixture in the city’s soccer scene for the past 15 years, will lead out the fourth ranked Indochina side under their new name JBCF. Jeannine & Billy’s Children Foundation is a charity Barnaart created to help orphans and children affected by HIV infected parents. Despite pushing into his 60s, Barnaart is never far from the field with an amazing hunger for the game.

Me Mates Place is another outfit with a new identity, having roped in the core members of the Expat Advisory side.

Six games have been carded for today’s curtain raiser, with Phnom Penh Post taking on Cellcard at 7pm to signal the start of nearly four months of fun-filled action.

A 12-day mission trip to Cambodia has changed the way some James Hargest students see the world, says one student.

Fifteen year 12 and 13 students and two teachers returned last Thursday from their trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

James Hargest College head of department guidance counsellor Sandra Tyree said the students had come up with the idea for the trip themselves as part of Youth with a Mission (an international Christian movement).

They started fundraising for the trip at the end of last year and they paid the remaining costs themselves, she said.

On the trip, the students spent time working in an orphanage teaching English at a language school.

They also worked as part of a "heart-breaking" programme with children in the slums, she said.

"It was a challenge ... The people themselves are so lovely and so welcoming. It was a great experience."

The students had been "awesome" and they did not complain about conditions or the unusual toilet arrangements, Mrs Tyree said. The hardest part of the trip was getting used to the 40degC humid heat.

The total cost of the trip was about $2900 per student and the group took $3000 to donate to projects in Cambodia, she said.

It was the first time the school had undertaken such a trip.

On returning home, the students were asked how they felt the trip went.

They all gave the trip at least a 10 out of 10 and some said it was a 100 out of 10, she said.

Year 13 student Lauren Brown said the trip had been life changing.

"The kids are so happy and just being embraced by a whole new culture is something that I have never done before."

It changed the way the students saw the world now, she said.

Miss Brown is also one of 14 finalists to be World Vision youth ambassadors next year.

The three ambassadors chosen will get a trip to East Timor as part of World Vision.

DENGUE fever, the disease, does things to your brain and body with headaches and joint pains that make you suffer. Dengue Fever, the band, does things to your brain and body by mixing Cambodian pop music of the 1960s with American psychedelic rock that makes you dance.

Although you may have put it in the too-strange-to-be-true category, blending venerable south-east Asian pop and a modern rock band is exactly what Zac Holzman and his brother Ethan conceived of after a holiday in Cambodia. A Scottish travelling companion's dengue fever outbreak was soundtracked by a bus driver's tinny radio blaring old-school local music sung by a succession of spooky female voices.

Back home the brothers feverishly (sorry, but it's true) sought out someone who could repeat the dose for them, finally finding a young immigrant, Chhom Nimol. She was more than a little reluctant initially when these two hairy white men explained their plan to play the music of artists revered by Cambodians, such as Sinn Sisamouth and his singing partner, Ros Serey Sothea.

Advertisement: Story continues below But three albums later, now with more originals than covers in their repertoire, Dengue Fever is a seriously entertaining and, dare one say it, groovy, band.

The guitarist, songwriter and occasional vocalist Zac Holzman is, I've been told, up in the hills when I put the call through. Sadly we're not talking the hills of Cambodia.

''We are based in Los Angeles,'' Holzman says apologetically. ''But there is a huge Cambodian population down in Long Beach, which is very close to LA. So if you want to experience the cuisine or the nightlife there are some places you can go down there and try to dance Cambodian.''

How does one dance Cambodian, particularly when one is decidedly American?

''Well, the cool thing is that guys get to go a little bit crazier than the girls. For the girls it's all in their hands but the guys get to do a cool sort of tai chi kind of a walk.''

Thanks to Lou Reed, Sydneysiders are down with the tai chi in rock but can Holzman explain Dengue Fever's blend? It turns out it's what the Lion King might call the circle of life.

The music performed by Sinn Sisamouth in the '60s was a blend of traditional Cambodian styles, and the music heard through American soldiers in neighbouring Vietnam. So what the Holzman brothers did was take that American-influenced Cambodian music and make it into Cambodian influenced American music.

''It's like a game of tag: they were inspired by what they were hearing on the radio and they added their thing to it and then we heard it and thought, 'That's really different; we like that,''' Holzman says. ''We've gone to Cambodia a couple times now and I think we are having an influence there and hopefully people are putting the karaoke machine in the closet and picking up a guitar."

There is not just some two-way cultural exchange happening here but also some cultural restoration. What can't be ignored with this band and this country is the legacy of destruction suffered by the Cambodian culture and people during the murderous Pol Pot regime in the mid-'70s.

''They were on the fringe of losing everything, instruments, songs and dance that had been with them for 700 or 800 years,'' Holzman says. ''We've been working with some old masters who survived the Khmer Rouge who are teaching kids.''

Another feature of the band is Holzman's extravagant, if not Z Z Top, beard.

''My first trip to Cambodia, the girls I would be talking to would look and go 'why? It's really bad'," he laughs.

"Then after we were on the Cambodian television network we were in some other part of the country, walking down the beach and some kids trying to sell me some little bracelet or something were like, wait a second, 'you sing in Khmer, you sing for me!'"

A Cambodian motorcyclist maneuvers through a flooded street along side cars on a rainy day in Phnom Penh.

“There were some victims but the [National Committee For Disaster Management] is working on it.”

The Ministry of Hydrology on Monday warned that maritime provinces and others are facing the threat of flooding and damages under continued rains.

The warnings come after Preah Sihanouk province experienced heavy rains and as-yet undetermined damages. Two fishing boats and one tourist boat were overturned on Sunday in heavy weather, officials said, though no drownings were reported.

Local authorities are still assessing the damage from Sunday's storm, which may have destroyed some homes.

“There were some victims but the [National Committee For Disaster Management] is working on it,” said Keo Vy, a spokesman for the agency.

The ministry has issued warnings to the inland provinces of Kampong Speu, Pursat, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng, as well as the coastal provinces of Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Kampot, of dangers resulting from flooding and storms over the next three days.

BANGKOK — A senior Thai security official alleged Monday that members of the anti-government Red Shirt movement were trained in Cambodia to assassinate top Thai leaders, including the prime minister.

Eleven men who were arrested last week in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai were among 39 given ideological and combat training in a "neighboring country," Lt. Col. Payao Thongsen, a senior investigator for the Department of Special Investigation, said at a news conference.

He did not name the country but described the routes the men allegedly took to their training ground, which led to Cambodian border crossings.

Cambodian officials were not immediately available for comment late Monday but have denied previous such allegations published in Thai media. Cambodia's relations with Thailand have been contentious for years, with the focus mostly on a border dispute.

The allegations also raise the stakes in an increasingly convoluted political battle that began in 2006, when elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a military coup for alleged corruption and disrespect toward Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The coup, supposed to restore stability after months of anti-Thaksin demonstrations that had all but paralyzed his administration, instead polarized the country, with Thaksin's opponents and supporters both protesting in the streets.

The Red Shirts include many Thaksin supporters as well as activists opposed to military interference in politics.

Two months of protests earlier this year by the Red Shirts — formally called the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, or UDD — demanding early elections degenerated into violence. About 90 people were killed by the time the army cleared the streets of demonstrators on May 19. Most top Red Shirt leaders were detained on terrorism charges.

Dozens of bombings widely thought to be linked to the political strife have also plagued Bangkok this year.

Payao said the 39 alleged trainees were part of a conspiracy to topple Thailand's monarchy, an allegation his agency — the equivalent of the U.S. FBI — has made in the past against Red Shirts and their sympathizers.

"During the training, they were taught by the Thai UDD members who were in the neighboring country about political beliefs and more importantly about hatred toward the institution," he said in an interview with the government-owned MCOT television network.

"The institution" is a common euphemism for the monarchy, which until recent years has been held in almost universal high regard. However, some Red Shirts and social critics perceive that some palace circles were involved in the coup.

A report on MCOT's website said that Payao asserted that the alleged terrorists' three weeks of training "was held in a Cambodian army camp and they were trained by Cambodian soldiers." The website of several Thai newspapers cited him making the same assertion.

Payao said the men were "trained to know almost every kind of weapon," including assault rifles and grenade launchers, and were also shown the use of C4 plastic explosive.

He did not explain why Cambodia would be involved in such a conspiracy.

The two nations have had a series of small but sometimes deadly skirmishes over the demarcation of their border near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple. Relations worsened last year, with both countries withdrawing their ambassadors, after Cambodian leader Hun Sen made Thaksin an official adviser and hosted him like a VIP. Thaksin recently resigned that position, and both countries restored their ambassadors.

Payao displayed what he said was evidence of the assassination plot, including maps and photos. However, none of the 11 men arrested in Chiang Mai — said by Payao to be the source of information on the plot — have been produced for the press to give their side of the story.

Police have said the 11 are being held as material witnesses with useful information about other suspects. The identities of at least some of the other men allegedly trained in Cambodia are known, and Payao said officials are trying to track them down.

MCOT reported that Jatuporn Prompan, a Red Shirt leader who is a member of Parliament, denied that his movement was part of any assassination plot. The Red Shirts charge that allegations that they are involved in violence are meant to discredit them politically.

During the first eight months of this year, the number of foreign tourist arriving in Cambodia increased 15 percent up to 1,630,068 tourists from January to August 2010, from 1,422,003 foreign tourists for the same period of last year.

Angkor Wat in the sun rice. The increase is because of political stability and keeping tourists safe. By the way, the Cambodian government is trying to advertise on CNN in order to attract the global travelers to Cambodia.

The increase is because of political stability and keeping tourists safe. By the way, the Cambodian government is trying to advertise on CNN in order to attract the global travelers to Cambodia.

Vietnam was the largest source for Cambodia’s tourists during the period. It was followed by South Korea, China, Japan, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Australia and Thailand.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia has suspended all flights to its two international airports due to heavy rain and strong winds.

Civil aviation official Him Sarun says the suspension at the airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap started at 10 a.m. Monday (0300 GMT) and would remain in effect as long as the weather was bad. He says some 20 flights to and from other countries were cancelled. Domestic flights were also stopped.

Him Sarun said Monday: "We did it for the sake of travellers' safety." He says that pilots could not see the runway.

The Ministry of Water Resource and Meteorology says the poor weather conditions started Sunday and would last until at least Wednesday. All-day rain flooded parts of capital Phnom Penh as deep as 1 metre (3.3 feet).

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, Oct 11, 2010-Thai media and police officials have accused Cambodia with groundless of training terrorists against Thai government and plotting to kill top governmental officials. it sounded fear for me and painted bad relationship for peoples.

Cambodian constitution did not allow anyone to do so. But Thai media and police officials are trying to create bad image for Cambodian government and people.

Thai media and police officials are trying to create dark cloud for relationship between two countries. Who believed about accusing Cambodia of training terrorists? Why Thailand did not say about Thai soldiers who hated Thai police and government and organized the plot to do so without anyone forced them to do it. They should talks about the local separatists in southern Thailand like Yala, Pattani, Songla, Narathiwat. before They painted Malaysia and now they painted Cambodia.

Thai media started to do a campaign to make trouble for bilateral ties before Cambodian information minister plans to visit Thailand. Thailand created the bad image for relationship with Cambodia through mapping terrorist acts. News writers and media trainers of Thailand used to help train Cambodian and regional media reporters to respect code of ethics but Thai media itself have never done it yet and Thai media was used as mouthpiece of police officials to fight against Phnom Penh government and accused Cambodians of doing bad things for relation.

Cambodians have never forgotten about invasion from Thai soldiers at the area near 11th Khmer Preah Vihear temple on July 2008 and Thai soldiers fired on local Khmer Market in front of the temple and its shooting damaged the head of naga of statues at the temple.

Thai police officials said that they had arrested 11 of 39 militant combatants who are close to Former PM Thaksin and they were trained in Cambodia. It is a ridiculous and very groundless remark. How many people are loyal to former PM Thaksin and how many people are soldiers who love Thaksin if those people want to do so. Why they need to train in Cambodia. Thai soldiers who love Sri Daen, former general who assassinated. I think those soldiers has capable of plotting by themselves or Thai people need to train in Cambodia or Thai media need to train from Cambodian media.

Hey, men, how many square kilometers of Khmer land that Thai soldiers need, please come to take it. Thailand should not pass the document notes from border committees and go to field to measure that land. the confession from the robberies are trying to link issues and rubbish stories always go around , you know.

Thai and Cambodian Defense ministers held talks about reducing military tension at the border especially at Cambodia’s Buddhist pagoda near Preah Vihear temple.

Thai side that Thai defense ministry is ordering the local military unit at the ground to discuss with military forces to withdraw 30 military forces in Cambodian territory, “Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh told Japanese Kyodo news agency at Hanoi.

Both sides agreed that general border committee will be held the meeting on October 28-29 at Bangkok.

Cambodian and Thai defense ministers attended the ADMM plus eight dialogue partner in Hanoi, composing with 10 ASEAN countries, the US, Russia, New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea, Australian, and India. They will talk about the regional security and fight against terrorism, peacekeeping forces, and security stability in region.

Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government on Monday denied that members of a Thai insurgent group had received military training from Cambodian government forces.

Thailand's Department of Special Investigations claimed that 39 anti-government militants received weapons training at a Cambodian army camp.

Thai authorities also claimed the so-called red shirts had been trained to carry out assassinations on key public figures, including Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan denied the allegations.

'It's made up. Our constitution does not allow anyone to do that sort of thing [on Cambodian soil],' Phay Siphan said. 'Nobody is allowed to do any such stupid thing in Cambodia.'

He said recent meetings between Prime Minister Hun Sen and Abhisit in the United States and Brussels were evidence of Cambodia's good intentions to improve relations.

'So I think this accusation is a made-up story to blame Cambodia, and is also [part of the] campaign against the red shirts, using Cambodia as a springboard for Thai local politics,' he said.

'It is a nonsense for Cambodia to foster [trouble] with anyone,' he said.

Thai news outlets quoted Lieutenant Colonel Payao Thongsen as saying that 11 activists arrested recently had confessed to receiving training in Cambodia. He said 28 others had also taken part.

Relations between the neighbours have been tense for more than two years with sporadic clashes between troops over disputed territory near Preah Vihear temple on Cambodia's northern border.

Diplomatic relations improved in August after Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who has close links to the red shirt movement, resigned from two advisory positions he had held with Phnom Penh since late 2009.

Cambodia (MNN) ― Cambodia is known to be a hotbed for sexual exploitation and trafficking. According to the Not For Sale Campaign, "Cambodia is a destination for child sex tourism." Many tourists visit for the sole purpose of raping a child or a young virgin at a brothel.

Instead of training all of the women identically, Adelphe works with each one to learn their interests and to teach them skill sets that will help bring them out of poverty. (World Hope photo)

Cambodia (MNN) ― Cambodia is known to be a hotbed for sexual exploitation and trafficking. According to the Not For Sale Campaign, "Cambodia is a destination for child sex tourism." Many tourists visit for the sole purpose of raping a child or a young virgin at a brothel.

After working for years in after-care for women and children who had been trafficked, World Hope International discovered some interesting news about the sex trade in Cambodia.

"We learned that a lot of the girls that we were working with came from rural areas," says Heather Beatty, coordinator of World Hope's Adelphe program in Cambodia. "Traffickers were specifically targeting girls and women in rural areas for a couple of reasons: families in rural areas have a more severe case of poverty...and they also are less informed on what human trafficking is." This combination of disadvantages makes it easy for a trafficker to lure a young woman or child from her family with the promise of a job.

When World Hope realized how vulnerable rural women and children are, they began a sponsorship program called Adelphe to educate and empower women in order to prevent them from ever getting trafficked.

Adelphe is currently working in a district where many of the women in their after-care program originally lived. The program goes into the poorest communities to work with women who have often been widowed or abandoned by their husbands, and who typically make less than 45 cents a day.

When Adelphe enters a community, "We just start meeting with the women," says Beatty. "We talk to them about what their needs are, and what they would like to see differently in their lives. And that's where it starts: listening to them and what they would like to accomplish with their family and in their community, and then we just start working together from that point."

Based on those conversations, Adelphe places each woman in a program that will harness her skills. For instance, one woman, whose husband had left her, was trying to feed her three children on the five cents a day she earned to care for someone's animals. She farmed a little, also, to feed her children.

When Adelphe staff sat down with the woman, she said she just wanted to be able to feed her family and send her kids to school--an option which had previously been financially out of the question. Adelphe enrolled the woman in training to learn more about agriculture and animal raising. With her new knowledge, she is now getting three times the yield on her crops. She can now not only feed her family, but sell some food as well. In addition to this success, at the end of her program she will be given a few animals of her own.

"She by no means is going to be wealthy, but she is definitely on the path not only to provide her family more food, but also to be able to afford to send her children to school and to provide for their basic needs."

As women are trained in the program, they are also educated about human trafficking. In fact, Adelphe staff, all of whom are native to Cambodia, include the families and the entire communities in the education. Because the status of women is so low in the country, there are purposeful Christian male staff with the program who set a better standard for the men who are present when it comes to treating women with dignity and respect.

Throughout the two to three years while the women are being trained and empowered, the Gospel message is central. "If we help them provide for their families and if we tell them that they are a person of dignity and of value and should be treated with dignity, and we don't share with them the love of Jesus Christ, we really have not done much for them," says Beatty.

The Gospel is spoken and lived by Adelphe staff. Home churches are started in communities that don't have a church to attend. The livelihoods of these women change through the program, but the way they view themselves and their lives changes when they hear the Gospel. Many have not even heard of Jesus Christ before participating in the program.

"They have not heard a Gospel that offers them hope for the future, a Gospel--particularly when it comes to women--that they are daughters of God, that they are children of God or made in the image of God. When we first share that, there's complete disbelief in that message, and understandably. It goes counter to anything they've experienced in their entire life, but to see the Holy Spirit start to work over time and to see the transformation take place in the women's lives and in the families' lives is absolutely amazing."

It costs $32 to not only empower a woman, bring her out of extreme poverty and keep her safe from ever being sold as a slave, but to, in turn, empower and educate her children and her community. Each sponsor has the opportunity to correspond with her Adelphe "sister" and is encouraged to tell her more about the love of Jesus Christ. Sponsors can even take a trip with World Hope to meet their Adelphe sister.

To learn more about sharing the love of Christ in this way, visit worldhope.org, and find Adelphe under "Our Work."